On academic freedom:Bollinger says he has spent much of his academic career
examining academic freedom and how it relates to the First Amendment.
"I would say there's nothing that I think is more important with any
university community," he says. "To me, what it means is that there
is a special openness to be willing to enter the sensibilities of
other people.

"It is not simply a matter of the term I use a lot, tolerance.
That is really not what it is. Tolerance is the right description,
the right word for free speech in a sense, that is, you simply allow
people to say things but you don't have to make a special effort to
enter the sensibilities of other people."

Bollinger says that in the academic world, there is an additional
tenet to tolerance. He says that students and faculty must "suspend
your beliefs" and "really entertain" what others are saying. But, "it
doesn't mean you don't make judgments and you don't have
positions."

On the University's relations with state
government:
Bollinger says that the best way to demonstrate why universities make
"such a great contribution to society" is to invite legislators to
campus to see exactly what happens on campus. "Nothing I could say in
an office can compare with a visit to the campus to see what actually
happens," he says.

In addition, he says that relationships "count for a great deal"
when working with members of the legislature. Moreover, "it's the
attitude you bring into it. So, if your attitude is `of course the
institution is great. You obviously ought to support it; not
supporting it is unthinkable,' you just can't go around saying
publicly or privately that people who are making these decisions have
no appreciation of the values of the University when they don't give
as much as people would like."

"I don't believe in an advocacy model, an interest group model for
the university." He says that this model is inconsistent with his
"fundamental principle"---openness in the community. "To turn the
University at its top level into an interest group is to have a
contradiction at the very top, and that's unthinkable."

On the relationship between the president and the
Regents:
Bollinger says that cooperation and honesty are the keys to the
president establishing a relationship with the Regents. The president
must "have lots and lots of conversations" with the Regents about
sensitive issues that arise.

He also suggests following the example of Dartmouth by setting up
an annual retreat for the Regents where they "spend two-and-a-half
days talking about the major issues of the institution."

On the challenges facing the president of a large
institution compared with his duties at a smaller
institution:
Bollinger says that deans at the U-M do not simply work on the school
level, they work with faculty and staff from across the University.
He adds that the U-M has always placed power in the hands of the
deans. However, he is concerned that deans may have lost some of
their power in the recent past for many reasons.

Because he met with so many people from around the U-M while he
was dean, he says that "by the time I left Michigan, I had a very
strong sense of what was going on in the various schools around the
institution."

He also says that "Dartmouth is bigger than you think and smaller
than you think." He compares it to looking at "a Japanese miniature,
so you get a sense of a bigger picture by looking at something
smaller, and I have been able to watch a really fine teaching
institution, undergraduate teaching institution, do that and to
participate in it as I've done as a teacher."

On the Medical Center/Health System:
Bollinger says that the most important thing is that the University
not lose ownership of the hospital. He says that Dartmouth does not
control either the hospital or the doctors' practices, and it has
caused a situation in which there is "a process constantly in search
of a structure. There is a lot of wasted energy in the system because
of the lack of a clear structure."

He praises the quality of the Medical Center, but says that there
are aspects of it that must change to meet the needs of a changing
industry. "As the HMO system moves in, you've got to position
yourself in that market, which means generally closing some beds,
letting off some people and reducing your costs," he says.

"The whole system was built up on Medicaid and Medicare, and
fee-for-service is evaporating, and the academic medical schools, as
we know, are suffering. The academic medical program with the right
type of business leadership can compete in this new market."

Bollinger says that he is "simply not a high-powered business
person," and that he would have to bring in somebody who can combine
business acumen with academic skills. "I think the trick is to find
that person, to attract them to a place like Michigan, to give them
autonomy, and to let the system go with frequent supervision."

On faculty governance and tenure:
Bollinger believes it is "very important to keep all parts of the
structure of governance alive and well" and that the president should
meet regularly with the Senate Advisory Committee on University
Affairs to discuss issues of concern. He also is a strong supporter
of tenure and "would fight as hard as I possibly could to maintain
it."

He says that without tenure, the special type of thinking that
takes place in the academy---"kind of suspension of belief and a
willingness to entertain other sensibilities in an extraordinary
way"---would be inhibited.

"You have to feel that you are protected before you can undergo
the psychological, mental transformation to open up in that way," he
says. "If you kick somebody out, you are taking away somebody who has
built a life, an intellectual personality, around something that has
a very distinctive set of values, and that's not fair."

Bollinger says there are other ways of ensuring high levels of
quality research and teaching, namely through salaries and
self-motivation.

"There are tremendous internal pressures on people to succeed," he
says. "Most people are not aware of them, but the internal
motivations that spring from these other things to do well are very,
very great, so I think there are plenty of protections. I think deans
need to occasionally be stimulated to use salaries in a way that will
promote greater research and teaching."

On the perception that undergraduate education
suffers at a large research institution:
Bollinger believes that the learning opportunities for U-M students
are at least equal to those at a small, private, elite institution
like Dartmouth, and that much has been done at Michigan in the past
10 years to create a more student-friendly environment.

He says he supports research opportunities for undergraduates and
thinks learning/living programs are a good idea because they bring
education into the social life of students.

"At Dartmouth, the idea has been to create a faculty house
connected to a cluster of dorms and have a faculty member live there
and have programs during the year," says Bollinger, who stopped short
of advocating the same model at Michigan. "Maybe go to a poetry
reading or a Red Sox game, just have activities and you have an adult
faculty presence that tries to put some educational life into the
institution."

Bollinger had time for informal discussions at the
reception.

On the culture at Michigan:
Bollinger says that a certain sense of modesty permeates the culture
at U-M, which does not have the kind of self-importance that some of
its peer institutions possess. "I happen to find that extremely
charming and endearing, and I think it is a wonderful feature," he
says.

However, he adds, this sense of modesty is accompanied by "a loss
of a sense of history, a sense of self, a sense of identity." For
example, Bollinger believes that the University should tout more the
history and architecture of many of its buildings---at England's
Cambridge University, "there's a book on every single building that
tells you about it and where it came from"---and stake a greater
claim to more of its famous alumni and others who studied in Ann
Arbor.

On issues of selectivity, accessibility and
diversity:
Bollinger believes that moving toward a "need-blind" admissions
policy would be a proper goal for Michigan and that "a prospective
student's ability to get an education should not depend upon their
family's wealth, their economic status."

He says that he is deeply committed to the notion of affirmative
action and fully supports the efforts of the Michigan Mandate to
diversify the student population. He thinks society has an obligation
to provide opportunities for economically and socially disadvantaged
groups of people, and that in higher education, it is critical to
"cross boundaries and [experience] how other people see the
world."

On the role of intercollegiate athletics within
the institution:
"I think they're great learning experiences, are enormous fun and are
part of the Michigan identity," Bollinger says. "The role of the
president, I think, is to make it absolutely clear that there will be
no violations whatsoever. It's a colossal embarrassment to an
institution to be sanctioned, and totally unacceptable."

He adds that maintaining high academic standards for athletes and
managing the commercialization of the athletic program (e.g., the
Nike contract) are other important issues.